Disclaimer : Joss Whedon owns the characters. Atleast most of them. I’m continuing the story which didn’t end when he finished. Just want to have an ending.
“Andrew? What are you doing here?” Giles questioned the figure who has fallen to the floor exhausted.
“I’m sorry Giles. You told me to take care of the council. But there is an emergency. Slayers have started to die all over the world.” Everyone started to panic by Andrew’s message.
“Alright. I’ll go and see what is happening. Meanwhile, you guys figure out what is going on with Spike in here.” Giles said to the group and hurried to the office to make a call.
“Spike? He’s alive?” Andrew was shocked now by the news. He was told that Spike didn’t survive the battle back at the council.
When nobody replied, Andrew shouted loud “Hello. Is there anyone here?” When everyone looked at him weirdly, he shrugged off and asked again. “Spike is alive?”
“Yes Andrew. He’s alive upstairs.” Dawn replied him. Before she could continue, Andrew dashed out of the room up the stairs. “He’s not like normal so he might kill you if you try anything.” She shouted back at him but Andrew kept moving until he was at Spike’s door. He had to search through but he didn’t give up until he found the room. He dashed in through and hugged Spike with all the strength he had.
Spike was shocked at the sudden burst through the door in his room. Before he realized, someone was hugging him. He tried to shrug the figure off him but when he realized it was Andrew, he eased up.
“What are you doing here Andrew?” He asked quietly.
“Thank the heavenly gods for keeping you alive. You are back. Back from the dead again. You are an Immortal.” Andrew was blabbering.
Spike laughed softly. He always found Andrew annoying but funny to be around with. “Atleast someone is happy to see me back. Although it may not be for long.” Spike said it with a low voice.
“What do you mean? I thought everyone will be excited to see you alive.” Andrew was confused.
Spike smirked. “I think you got it wrong mate. I know you got it wrong. I’d rather be dead than be here like this.”
Andrew was lost in Spike’s remarks. “What are you talking about Spike? Everyone here loves you. Dawn missed you and so did Buffy.”
“Buffy…” Spike smirked again. “Loves me? You are the one who said Buffy have moved on. She has forgotten about everything and living a peaceful life.”
Andrew was out of words. “I… I…” he didn’t know what to say. “I think I might have been wrong Spike. I thought she was but after you guys left, I saw something change in her. She was still in love with you. She was pretending to be happy for Dawn.”
“You’re wrong mate. She was never in love with me. She is happily in love with Immortal. She said it herself. So did nibblet. Oh sorry. Dawn. She didn’t even want me to call her by her names anymore.” At Andrew’s confused look, Spike continued, “Don’t believe everything you see boy. Take this advice from a vampire who has lived for sodding forever.” Spike gave a sad look to Andrew.
“I don’t know about the others but I surely missed you. If you are going somewhere, I’m coming with you.” Andrew said it with determination.
“Don’t take this the wrong way mate but I think I’m better off alone. But I really appreciate you caring for me.” Spike gave him a sad but appreciative look.
Andrew was confused. ‘Everyone here has hurt my Idol.’ he thought. ‘I must know what is going on in here.’
“I’ll be right back Spike. Don’t worry. And you are not alone. Whether you like it or not, I’m here with you.” With that, he moved back downstairs to the library to meet the others.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Andrew barked at everyone in anger. Everyone was shocked at his reaction. Nobody has ever seen him with so much anger.
“What did you guys do to Spike?” he questioned again.
“Nothing Andrew. He died in the battle and some demon was torturing him. We rescued him. No one here is responsible for his wounds.” Xander tried to assure Andrew. But it calmed him only a bit.
“He is emotionally hurt.” When he saw the look of ‘told you’ from Dawn, he turned his anger towards her. “What did you say to him? He was your protector. He cared about you so much and you hurt him like that?”
Dawn’s expression was priceless. She was lost at what Andrew was talking about. “What are you talking about?” she questioned him.
“You…” pointing her “hurting him. He said you didn’t care about him. You didn’t love him anymore. I thought you did since you were mourning for him all this time. Is that an act? Are you still mad at him?”
Dawn had a flash of anger upon his words. “No.” she yelled at Andrew. “I’m not mad at him and I damn well care about him. Why did he say that? About me?” she questioned him.
“I don’t know. He said you didn’t love him anymore. You didn’t even want to be called by his names anymore. He is really hurt about that.” Andrew continued and when he saw Dawn’s pale face, he softened. “He still loves you and your words must have hurt him really badly.”
“But I never said anything to him like that.” Dawn murmured.
Andrew turned his gaze to Buffy. The anger started to rise in him again. “You. I thought you were just pretending to be happy with Immortal. But I guess you really are happy. After everything Spike went through, you have forgotten about him and moved on so easily.” He accused Buffy not noticing her pained expression on his words. “When we were in Sunnydale, I thought you loved him. But I guess it was not true as well. I don’t know how you can be so cruel with your words like that.” He said it with disgust. Buffy didn’t reply. She was emotionally hurt. She couldn’t come up with any words to explain.
But Angel was sitting there listening to Andrew babble about Spike. He knew Andrew cared about Spike the first time he saw him. But this reaction was not something he would have expected from this little kid. When he started to accuse Buffy, anger flared upon him. He was partially hoping Andrew’s words were true. He decided to interfere since Buffy didn’t respond to him.
“I think you should cool down Andrew. Whatever are Buffy’s feelings for Spike is none of your concern. You cannot force her to love Spike when she doesn’t. It is her decision and you need to leave it at that.” His eyes glowed yellow for a moment showing his demon inside him.
With all the anger he was feeling, Andrew wasn’t scared about Angel’s threat. He stood up and argued back at him.
“Spike is my hero. No matter what others feel, I care about him. Even if he doesn’t speak for himself, I will speak for him. And if people in this room don’t care about him, then they deserve what I said.”
Before Angel could respond, Buffy started to speak. “You’re right Andrew. If people don’t care about him, they deserve what you said. But me or Dawn are not those people. We care about him a lot. And I didn’t say anything you said just now and Dawn didn’t say it as well.”
Andrew turned his look from Buffy to Dawn to see her nod her head. He was confused now. “Then why did he say those things to me?”
“We don’t know yet. I think he must have been hallucinating from the torture he faced when he died. We are trying to find out more about it.” Buffy explained.
Andrew was calm and ashamed a bit now. He was back at his normal style and was afraid of Buffy beating the crap out of him for his accusation. “I’m sorry.” He said it with a soft voice.
“It’s ok Andrew. We know you care about him as much as we do.” Buffy replied to calm Andrew down. When everyone has settled back again in the table, Buffy started to speak again. “We must help him overcome this. Willow… Is there anyway we can figure out what happened?”
Andrew intervened before Willow spoke. “We must help him soon. He was talking about leaving us permanently or I got the impression he didn’t want to be alive or rather undead anymore.”
Willow replied quickly seeing the panicking look on her friend’s face. “I might be able to figure out what happened but I don’t know how to cure it though.” When Buffy calmed down, she continued. “I can use a spell to project what happened to him in the last week but I cannot tell if I can erase them. It may not be possible.”
“That’s ok. Knowing what happened will be the first step to cure him from it.” Buffy replied with confidence.
“Andrew. You go and bring Spike downstairs. He is only communicating with you right now. We will prepare for the spell.” Buffy started to give the orders and Andrew flew out of the room to get his idol downstairs.
Willow and the rest were getting all the necessary items to use in the spell. Angel was showing them the locations of the candles and herbs needed for the spell. Dawn and the others were running around bringing the items to the hall. After a while, they saw Spike walking downstairs very slowly with Andrew holding his hand.
“What the bleeding hell is going down here?” Spike barked at Andrew seeing everyone in the hall.
“We are trying to help you Spike. Please trust me and come down.” Andrew replied pulling his arms.
Spike tried to get free but with his weak self, even Andrew was stronger than him. He gave up and allowed Andrew to pull him downstairs. Andrew brought him to the center of the circle Willow has drawn in the hall. Willow sat in the circle along with Spike mumbling to himself. Willow nodded her head towards Buffy and Buffy moved closer to Willow.
“I will have to go into his mind to see what is happening. If you want, you can be there too.” Willow whispered to Buffy already knowing the answer.
Buffy nodded in agreement and sat in the floor between Willow and Spike. Willow took hold of Spike’s right hand and took hold of Buffy’s left hand. Buffy noticed the movement and tried to take hold of Spike’s left hand with her right hand. He tried to struggle his hand away but her grip was too strong for him to win. He grimaced and gave up letting his hand rest in her hand. They made a circle between them. Willow started to chant her spell while everyone else watched them from a distance.
“Beatus is animus quod take nos ut preteritus. Ostendo nos cruciatus quod ostendo nos causa.” (Bless this soul and take us to the past. Show us the torture and show us the cause.)
A glow came from Spike and it went in through Willow and Buffy. A sudden shiver went through their bodies and both of them found themselves in a dark room. Buffy noticed the room instantly.
“This is where we found Spike. This is the place he was before.”
Both of them walked towards and saw Spike hanging in the wall. This time they could get closer but Buffy couldn’t touch Spike. Her hand went through him when she tried to touch him. She turned to Willow and saw the demon from her dream walking towards Spike. She nodded her head towards the demon to let Willow know. Willow turned around and saw the demon. Both of them stepped aside to see what was happening.
They listened to the conversation between the demon and Spike. They saw the torture and pain caused by the minions. They saw Spike passing out in pain. Buffy was shivering at the sight but held on together to see the whole show. They noticed Maricca coming into the room and putting her nails through Spike’s head. Willow knew what was happening but Buffy was lost.
“It seems like this demon has tortured his soul. She gains strength and power from the torture a soul suffers. Spike has too many sins and memories. All the torture would have made her really strong and powerful.” Willow explained.
Buffy just nodded. She was too emotional to speak. They saw Maricca moving to the corner and Angelus appearing in front of Spike.
“The soul is being tortured with hallucinating images. It will feel real and will be real for him. But in real, Angelus is not there.” Willow kept explaining.
They saw him torture Spike and mocking him with rude comments. Spike passed out again and when he regained conscious, an old lady appeared in front of him. They heard Spike calling her “Mother?” They knew who it was then. They watched her torture Spike with her words and see Spike suffer. Buffy had tears running from her eyes now. Willow was on the verge of tears too.
After that hallucination, they saw Dawn appearing. Buffy mouthed “Dawn” silently. Willow was shocked too but she knew what was happening.
“Spike’s soul is suffering from his worst nightmares. It will try to break the soul until it gives up on living.”
Buffy and Willow listened to Dawn talk to Spike. The words were like hot pokers stabbing through Spike. The conversation about the rape made Buffy twitch with pain. Even she couldn’t wait there listen to Dawn talk that way. ‘It must have been hell for Spike’ Buffy thought to herself.
Dawn disappeared and Spike looked as if he was totally broken. After a minute, Buffy appeared in front of him. The real Buffy shouted “No” but nobody heard it but Willow. Buffy fell to her knees and listened to her virtual self torture Spike with words. Tears were running from her eyes like a waterfall listening to her own words. She didn’t know what she could do to make Spike even look at her after hearing those words.
They saw the demon again now known as W&H to both of them. Buffy had pure anger and hatred in the look she was giving to the demon. She was determined to make the demon suffer for all that happened to Spike. She saw herself and Angel come into the room for rescue. They watched the battle and they saw Spike being taken away to open the portal. They heard W&H speak after they went through the portal.
There was a bright white light and when it faded away, they were back in the hall of Hyperion. Buffy clutched onto Spike’s hand stronger now knowing what he has been through. Willow broke off and walked away from the circle to compose herself. Everyone was looking at both ladies waiting for an explanation.
A/N : I know Andrew’s character seems different here. But I wanted him to grow up and be stronger than before. He already improved in Angel Season 5. I think this would be the next step for his character. Now they know what happened. But how will they cure Spike from it? And what is happening with the Slayers? PLEASE REVIEW.
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for your patience. And I am heartwelmed by your reviews. I hope I am keeping it up to your expectations. More chapters coming up. PLEASE REVIEW more and keep me excited to write more.